The Best Whiskey for Whipping Up a Whiskey Sour All the New Whiskies You Need to Drink This Fall The Manual Spirit Awards 2019: The Best Craft Liquor Made in America 5 of the Best Aged Tequilas to Drink When the Weather Cools Down Editors’ Recommendations The first time we wrote about Southern Grace Distilleries — the prison distillery located just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina — the space was only getting set to open. At the time, they had their white whiskey, and that was about it. Flash ahead to now (about a year later) and Southern Grace has launched their first aged whiskey: Conviction Bourbon.Conviction Bourbon is aged in a mix of 10- and 15-gallon barrels for around eight months in the only rackhouse in North Carolina — not to mention the only rackhouse that used to be part of a prison. As the distillery begins producing more stock, Southern Grace is slowly transitioning away from the smaller batches to full-size, 53-gallon barrels.The first release of the bourbon features a few different blends. Because of barrel size, the bottles have been drawn and co-mingled from a number of different barrels (usually two or three for each batch), all of which are noted on the bottle.Appearance: Conviction Bourbon is a golden amber color.Nose: On the front, notes of brown sugar and cinnamon. These are followed by oak and cinnamon. The nose of reminiscent of the children’s breakfast cereal Waffle Crisp.Palate: Conviction has a fairly light body, with burnt caramel, oak, and candied fruit revealing themselves immediately. Honeyed cherries and toasted oak come through next, followed by hints of dark chocolate and vanilla.Finish: Smooth brown sugar close the palate out, which is also when the heat shows up. The long finish lingers, with dry oak staying on the tongue to the end.Final Thoughts: For a young bourbon — and a first aged release from a distillery — it may surprise you how good it is (especially when so many craft bourbons out there are released before they are ready). While eight months may not seem like a long time, the smaller barrels help speed the process up a little bit, delivering a whiskey that is mature beyond its time. It’ll be interesting to see future releases that have been stored in full-size barrels and to see how the team at Southern Grace manages the transition. If this bourbon is any indication, then there are good things on the horizon.Conviction Bourbon is 48.2 percent ABV and retails for around $35. Southern Grace is now up and operational, and quite fun to tour if you’re in the area. The Best New-School Kentucky Distilleriesread more

There has been no report of disruption to bunker supply and bunkering operations in Singapore, the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) said having consulted with close to 50 companies.Co-organised by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and SSA yesterday, the participants gathered for updates and discussed ways to minimise any impact on the local bunkering scene following the recent announcements made by OW Bunker A/S.The attendees were advised to carefully inspect their contractual obligations, and to work closely with their stakeholders to avoid or minimize disruption in their operations.“The bunkering industry here is a well-regulated one. While I urge my members to seek professional and legal advice as necessary, I also hope that those affected by this event would remain calm and not resort to knee-jerk reactions which may rock the stability and reputation of Singapore’s bunkering industry. My Association will be working closely with MPA to ensure that there would not be any unnecessary disruption in bunker supply and operations here,” said SSA President Patrick Phoon.MPA Chief Executive Andrew Tan added, “This has been a useful session for the shipping and bunkering community to come together to understand the current situation and to discuss practical steps forward. MPA will continue to work closely with SSA to manage the situation. We will also work with our licensed bunker suppliers to minimise any disruption to bunkering operations in Singapore.”read more

OTTAWA — The federal Liberal government has unveiled plans to award a sole-source contract for hundreds of light armoured vehicles to General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, while also promising the London, Ont., company a $650-million loan.The surprise deal and loan were announced by Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan on Friday, only weeks before the federal election, sparking Conservative allegations the Liberals were trying to buy votes and distract from the SNC-Lavalin affair.While final negotiations are still underway, the government says it plans to spend $3 billion for 360 LAVs as well as associated infrastructure upgrades and testing, which will replace two of the army’s aging armoured vehicle fleets.The Defence Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande said the vehicles the government will be purchasing through the pending deal are different from those GDLS is building as part of a $15-billion deal between Canada and Saudi Arabia.That deal has caused the company and federal government endless grief since it was brokered in 2014, partly because of criticism about the sale of weapons to the kingdom given its abysmal human-rights record.Story continues belowThis advertisement has not loaded yet,but your article continues below.There have also been reports that Saudi Arabia has failed to pay for the hundreds of vehicles it has already received, with a CTV report in June pegging the outstanding debt at more than $1 billion.The new LAVs are instead largely the same as those already being used by the Canadian Forces, Lamirande said, which was one reason the government decided to forgo a competition and move on negotiations with GDLS.Awarding a contract now rather than in several years, as the Defence Department had planned, will also save time, money and prevent layoffs at the company as GDLS recently upgraded the military’s existing LAV fleet, she added.Departmental documents show officials had not planned to start moving out on the project in earnest for several more years.During an event with Sajjan in London on Friday, GDLS vice-president John Ellison underscored the economic importance of the sole-sourced deal, saying it “represents good jobs for our employees and our network of suppliers in all regions of Canada.”Neither the government nor GDLS provided details about the loan, including whether it was intended to cover a shortfall in payments from Saudi Arabia.Conservative defence critic James Bezan blasted the Liberals over the timing of Friday’s announcement even as he expressed his party’s support for GDLS and the purchase of needed equipment for the military.“After failing to deliver for the Canadian Armed Forces over the past four years, the Liberals are now desperately using the needs of our military to distract from Justin Trudeau’s SNC-Lavalin corruption scandal right before an election,” he said in an email.“While GDLS is a trusted partner and Conservatives support its workers, today’s announcement is nothing but cynical electioneering from a scandal-plagued Liberal government that will do anything and say anything to cling to power.”Southern Ontario has long been a battleground region for the three major parties, with the Liberals and NDP fighting for the urban centres of London, Kitchener-Waterloo and Windsor while the Tories have taken large swaths of the rural countryside.Asked about the announcement’s timing, Public Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough’s spokeswoman Ashley Michnowski said the project was part of the Liberals’ 2017 defence policy “and has been planned over many months.“This project is important to ensure the Canadian Armed Forces have the equipment they need to do the work we ask of them.”Qualtrough’s office also said the project would sustain 1,650 jobs in the London area and around 8,500 across Canada, “bringing certainty to both GDLS and the community of London.”Defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute said he believes the pending deal with GDLS, much like the government’s decision to add a third shipyard to its national shipbuilding plan, could have been announced months earlier.The process for naming that shipyard was launched two weeks ago after more than a year of discussion, with many observers expecting the government to choose Davie Shipbuilding in Levis, Que.“But that doesn’t mean some of these on their own aren’t actually objectively good ideas,” he said.“What they did today was smart…. It’s clearly an important opportunity to move a program significantly faster than intended because this project wasn’t slated to go for another three or four years.”The institute, which describes itself as a non-profit organization specializing in non-partisan, unbiased and independent analysis of Canadian public policy options, reported in its most recent annual report that General Dynamics Land Systems was one of several of its financial sponsors.–Follow @leeberthiaume on Twitterread more